Friday, July 14, 2017

Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses Revive Soviet-Era House Churches but with Laptops and Kindles

Paul
Goble

Staunton, July 14 – The Russian Supreme
Court in April declared that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were an “extremist”
organization, prohibited its missionary activities, and declared that the
Witnesses’ 396 Kingdom Halls were to be handed over to the state.The Witnesses have appealed that decision and
a final hearing on their case will be take place on Monday.

Because of the appeal, the
government has not yet implemented all the aspects of the original decision,
and Russian Jehovah’s Witnesses are hopeful for a positive result, either there
or later at the European Court of Human Rights. But the Russian government
action has already had a serious impact on the community.

Not all Russians have fallen victim
to this official campaign. According to a report in Novaya gazeta today, for example, one policeman asked Witnesses who
continue to engage in missionary activity to do so somewhere other than on his
beat but then relented and allowed them to go ahead (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/07/13/73105-bog-prosto-esche-ne-doigral).

More seriously,
Jehovah’s Witnesses deprived of access to their Kingdom Halls have created
house churches that resemble in some ways the underground religious groups that
existed in Soviet times. But they are doing so with many modern touches: many
rely on laptops and even read the Bible on kindles.

Some Russian Witnesses are thinking
about emigrating given the crackdown against them in Russia today, but most say
that they “do not want to leave the country because of the ban. We love Russia.
We love the Russian language. [And] we love these people,” the Witnesses say.

In the words of one Russian Witness,
“Witnesses don’t take up arms, they do not participate in wars and meetings. We
will struggle but by purely legal methods. I don’t understand why they are
banning us. But it seems to me,” he said, “that those who are doing the banning
don’t know the answer either.”

What is obvious, however, is that
Vladimir Putin has chosen to attack religious groups that he believes Russians
won’t defend and that the West will not stand up for, going after the Jehovah’s
Witnesses and the Pentecostals, and thus create precedents for moving against denominations
as well.

While some in Russia and in the West
have spoken out in defense of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, not enough have, perhaps
because they do not yet fully understand how serious the challenge Putin is
posing by his campaign against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, first to members of
that denomination, then to followers of other religions and finally to all
people of good will.